Silence.
“The dormitory,” the sheikh repeated.
“Yes. It’s an all-girls boarding school, as you know. Many students live there.” I forced a smile. “It would be more convenient for my studies. And this way, I won’t be in the way of your...courtship.”
For a long moment, the sheikh simply stared at me. I couldn’t read his expression at all.
“If that is what you want,” he finally said.
What I wanted was for him to tell me this was all a terrible joke. What I wanted was for him to cross the room and pull me into his arms and kiss me until I forgot how to breathe.
But this wasn’t that kind of fairy tale.
And he wasn’t that kind of prince.
“I’ll have Gordan make the arrangements,” the sheikh said.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
I curtsied, low and proper, the way Aretha had always insisted I should.
And then I turned and walked away.
I made it all the way to my room before the tears came.
****
IT HAD BEEN ONE WEEKsince I moved to the dormitory, and I had not heard a single word from the sheikh.
Not that I expected him to. Or wanted him to. I might have developed a habit of checking my phone every five minutes since moving to the dorm, but that hadnothingto do with him.
Anyway, I was too busy to care, especially since I...had this book in front of me.
Yes, that’s it.
I had this great life that allowed me to read as much as I wanted.
That sounded amazing, right?
But as soon as I opened the book and remembered too late that it was all about two people falling in love...
Nooooo.
I suddenly couldn’t stop myself from remembering the ghost of his hands on my skin. Or the way his mouth had moved against mine that night. My body just had this painfully easy way of remembering everything, even when I was trying so hard to forget.
Some nights, I would wake up tangled in my sheets, heart pounding, skin flushed, his name on my lips. And for one aching moment, I would reach for him before remembering that he wasn’t there.
That he would never be there again.
In fairy tales, Sleeping Beauty waited a hundred years for her prince.
I couldn’t even last a week.
“Lady Aurora!”
I looked up to find one of my classmates rushing toward me, her cheeks flushed with excitement.
“There’s a gentleman here to see you,” she gasped out. “From St. Andrew’s. He’s ever so handsome! He even brought flowers and chocolates.”
